In certain industrial applications, the processing and/or handling of dry powders can be problematic. That is, dry powders can have relatively poor flow properties or a tendency to agglomerate, clog output or processing devices, and/or flow in an irregular manner thereby inhibiting uniform flow and/or a desired homogeneity or heterogeneity in resulting target mixtures or applications.
Further, as in pharmaceutical industries, reliable filling, dispensing or outputting precise amounts of dry powders may be difficult. In the past, the metering of dry powder during filling may be provided generally volumetrically, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,226,962, and 6,357,490. Additional examples of volumetric metering systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,865,012 and 6,267,155; these volumetric metering systems propose using an oscillating filling head and/or vibration to aid powder fluidization of pharmaceutically relevant quantities. Others propose injecting a gaseous medium, such as compressed air, to facilitate the filling process, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,607. The above-referenced patents are incorporated by reference as if recited in full herein.
Certain dry powder formulations include relatively small particles; these small particles can be subject to forces of agglomeration and/or cohesion (i.e., certain types of dry powders are susceptible to agglomeration, which is typically caused by particles adhering together), which can result in poor flow and non-uniform dispersion, thus inhibiting reliable output. In addition, certain dry powders are hygroscopic in nature, a characteristic that may also inhibit reliable processing. Further, fine or low-density dry powders have a tendency to float or spontaneously aerosolize during dispensing, inhibiting a uniform flow and/or making precision meted or metered dispensing problematic.
Notwithstanding the above, there remains a need to provide improved dry powder processing and/or dispensing systems.